Why Josh Charles Was the Right Choice for The Veil’s “Most American American” Agent
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The post Why Josh Charles Was the Right Choice for The Veil’s “Most American American” Agent appeared first on Consequence.
In the new FX limited series The Veil, Elisabeth Moss delivers yet another standout performance as “Imogen,” whose name is in quotes because we know from the beginning that it’s not the secretive British spy’s real name. While the captivating character drives the thrust of the series, Imogen isn’t Moss’s favorite character in the show. That honor belongs to Max, the headstrong American CIA officer played by Josh Charles. (A notably different role from his recent appearance in a Taylor Swift music video.)
“Whenever we did readings of the script, I played Max,” Moss laughs to Consequence. “No one [else was] allowed to play Max. This is not a lie. Even if there was a man who was available to play Max, he’s my character. He has the best lines in the show.” Yet she was delighted to see Charles play the character on screen, because “you can’t get enough of him.”
The Veil, written by the ever-prolific Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, See, Spencer), is a modern-day spy story where half the drama comes from watching intelligence agents from three different countries interact. In this case, that means a battle between British, French, and American agencies as Imogen escorts a suspected terrorist named Adilah (Yumna Marwan) from Turkey to London, all while hoping to draw out of her the secrets needed to stop a pending attack.
Charles says that as a “huge fan” of the spy genre (he mentions the French series The Bureau as a current favorite), he was already intrigued when he got the call about The Veil. Then he “read the first couple scripts and I was like, ‘Yes.’ What I really appreciated about this material is, I don’t think it’s a surprise that there’s so many great stories being told in the world of espionage, you know, because it’s such a great sort of template to tell stories. And there’s this really intimate character study, particularly with the two leads. I found that chess match really interesting.”
Knight tells Consequence that his inspiration for The Veil came from a conversation with producer Denise Di Novi: “She had been talking to someone who had connections with the French Intelligence services and was talking about how modern developments had led to sort of adjustments within the intelligence services of the US and France and Britain, because of the new challenges and the frictions involved.”
Knight had previously researched spy operations in America and Britain for unproduced projects, and so he went to Paris “and met some people who don’t want to be credited who were part of the French Intelligence Services. And from bits and pieces that they told me, I started to put together this story.”
All this research gave him “a very vivid experience of the difference, where ex and current CIA operatives would tell you all these stories, you know, ‘This happened and this happened.’ You say, ‘Oh my God.’ And then you meet the British ones and they say, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as MI-6. What are you talking about? You know, we don’t exist.’ So it is the two polar opposites, and I think the French are somewhere in the middle.”
As Max, Charles represents the American extreme, a character described initially as “the most American American America has ever produced.” “What I always try to do is set up an expectation of what a character will be and then try to undermine it,” Knight says. “Those words are spoken by a French person who is expecting this American to arrive at Charles de Gaulle [airport], so there is gonna be an element of defense mechanism and rivalry and all of those wonderful things.”
But, Knight adds, “[Max] is much more than that, and Josh just went above and beyond. The way he treats it, where there’s a little inkling that he is aware of his own observance, which I think is always wonderful — it always adds something really special to that character, and he does it and he delivers the lines so well. But I think we could not have got a better actor to play that part.”
Di Novi refers to Charles as “the kind of actor I call ‘money in the bank,’ where you just know they’re going to deliver.”
“It’s not an easy part to pull off because you could go too far and be too annoying as that kind of guy,” Moss says.
Yet, observes Di Novi, “You just want him to come back all the time, which is what you want with an actor.”
“Yeah,” Moss agrees. “I’ve always been obsessed with him and love him so much. I was so excited to finally work with him. I know it’s easy to say of course, but he really doesn’t disappoint, like ever.”
(When asked about her go-to Charles performance, Moss says that “I was a big Good Wife fan for a long time. That would be probably the one that I’ve seen the most of.”)
The Veil (FX)
For the record, Charles confirms the affection is mutual: “I absolutely adore [Moss]. She’s so brilliant, and so part of doing this was jumping at the chance to work with her. She’s such a force as an actor — I wish I had more to do with her in the show, but I was really happy just being a part of it.”
And Charles “appreciated the humor” of the “most American American” line, because “I know what they meant. And when I did my research and talked to people in the CIA, that is often what happens when CIA people get involved — they like to take over, and that is part of the battles amongst agencies globally. So understanding that dynamic and realizing what the stakes are for him — for Max they feel very high… Like I said, he is this disruptor. He’s a bit of a shit-stirrer. I feel like he’s always just kind of messing with people. And I love that.”
Adds Charles, “It was fun for me to enjoy and relish an English man writing about an American hating on the French — there’s so many cliches about that, but I thought the way in which [Knight] did it and presented it made me laugh. So I just had to dive into it in a way that I felt was unapologetic, and I felt like I had permission to do that. I mean, he is a cocky character, but I think the cockiness is like born of ability. He’s one of those guys who always feels like he’s the smartest guy in the room, but also likes to have a lot of fun.”
Charles notes that he also enjoyed how there was a comedic element to Max’s scenes. “He’s written very funny. So I was excited, [because] I’m always looking for the opportunity to do anything comedic whenever possible.”
That said, this is his first time starring in a spy project, and he’s very happy to be exploring this genre at last. “I think it’s such a great world to set stories in, but what made [The Veil] unique to me is that it felt like this independent movie, set inside this world that is so grand. I love that juxtaposition, and that’s what the scripts felt like to me.”
The first two episodes of The Veil are streaming now on Hulu. Future episodes premiere Tuesdays.
Why Josh Charles Was the Right Choice for The Veil’s “Most American American” Agent
Liz Shannon Miller
Popular Posts
